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Jeff Johnson was elected President of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO, in December 2010 and was sworn into office on Jan. 5, 2011. Prior to that, since joining the WSLC staff in 1986, Johnson had served as special assistant to the president, lead lobbyist, research and organizing director, and as shop steward for his staff unit, which is part of Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 8.[1]

At his birthday party, Will Parry picked up his guitar and led 400 union brothers and sisters, family, comrades, and friends in singing "Carry It On" ending, "No more tears, for we're still singing."

Sponsored by the Puget Sound Alliance of Retired Americans, the celebration resounded with songs, poetry, and heartfelt tributes. Parry together with his late wife, Louise, helped build the labor movement and the senior citizen movement in the Pacific Northwest. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Washington, he worked as a factory worker at Longview Fiber, a box factory organized by the Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers.

Parry was targeted in the Red Scare of the 1950s, Johnson continued. "The Taft Hartley Act was passed and radicals were being purged from the labor movement. As Will said, 'They drove the radicals out and it took the starch out of the labor movement.'"

In recent years, the Washington Labor Council "honored him as a hero of the Washington State labor movement," Johnson concluded.

Bill Farris, president of AWPPW Local 817 at the corrugated box plant where Parry worked for many years, said, "He's an advocate for people who needed help, an advocate for the union. I've lost count of the number of picketlines I've walked with Will."[4]

AFL-CIO official

In 2011, ILWU workers were put out of their jobs at the $200 million EGT terminal in Seattle, which "is under contract to hire them, because the company is filling their positions with scabs from another union. The ILWU had refused to go along with company rules that allow EGT to ship jobs overseas at will. 200 have been arrested in protests against the company over the past several months".

Jeff Johnson, president of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO, said, "The labor movement in this state has a proud history of being aggressive when it comes to workers' rights. We have almost 20 percent of the workforce in unions, the fourth highest state for union density in the nation and there are powerful forces out there that want to change that."[5]

"Beyond Resistance: Reclaiming our Progressive Future"

Climate change is not a problem for the future-it is here now. taking lives and devastating communities, as evidenced by this year's series of extreme weather disasters. Even with the facts of climate science on our side. the climate movement has struggled to break the vice grip of industry and entrenched interests blocking climate progress. but more frequent climate·driven disasters have raised the stakes and urgency of climate change to a broader public. With action on climate obstructed at the national level. building a powerful and diverse grassroots climate movement and bold political leadership at the state and local level are more important than ever, and there are clear signs of progress.

Democracy Alliance Senior Strategy & Planning Officer and Climate and Clean Energy Equity Fund Director Roger Kim will lead a discussion with Florida State Senator Annette Taddeo (FL-5040), Washington State Labor Council President Jeff Johnson, New Florida Majority Executive Director Andrea Mercado, and University of California, Santa Barbara Professor Hahrle Han on groundbreaking strategies to strengthen the movement by addressing social and racial justice, new opportunities to build political power and leadership, and innovative climate and clean energy campaigns that improve people's everyday lives.[7]